Record-card-controlled statistical machine



Feb. 10, 1931. Q CAMPBELL 1,791,921

RECORD CARD CONTROLLED STATISTICAL MACHINE 7 Filed Dec- 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet l [/7 yeoior' CHARLES CAMPBEL by his flhor' ze Feb. 10, 1931. Q g ps 1,791,921

RECORD CARD CONTROLLED STATISTI CAL MACHINE Fil e Dec. 1 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 c 0 [I l I l l l l 4'0 Z5 I %6 86 fnveoior' I CHARLES CAMPBELL by his Afior'ncy Feb. 10, 1931. c; CAMPBELL 1,791,921

RECORD CARD CONTROLLED STATISTICAL MACHINE Filed Dec. 14. 1926 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 fr) venior CHARLES CAMPBELL s A fibr'ncy Patented eb; 10, 1931 .UN-ITED STATES enn-3121* OFFICE I CHARLES CAMPBELL, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE TABULATING MA- CHINE COMPANY, OF YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY nnconn-cmsconrnonrnn srnrrsrrcnn mcnmn Application filed December 14, 1926, Serial No; 154,751, and in Great Britain December 16, 1925.

This invention relates to record-card-controlled statistical machines of the kind wherein card-comparing mechanism' is provided for the purpose of detecting a difference between two successive record-cards as regards the character of the records thereon, for example asregards the position of a certain hole or holes in the cards set apart for the purpose. Such card-comparing mechanism is known as automatic-control mechanism, and examples of such mechanism are de-v scribed in the patents to C. D. Lake, Nos. 1,486,149, 1,600,413 and application filed May 15, 1923, Serial No. 639,153.

Hitherto this automatic-control mechanism has been used for the purpose of stopping the machine automatically when a change in the character of the record-cards occurred, such stoppage being followed by an operation or operations other than the normal record: ing or registration of items, for example the re-setting of counters, the printing of a total in the case of a listing machine and in such case also the operation of the paper-feeding mechanism to provide an extra line-space.

In certain kinds of work for which statistical machines are used, for example in the preparation of lists of numbers without printing of totals, as for instance numbers which do not represent amounts and of which therefore a total (which would have no meaning) is not desired, it may be required to perform some operation other than the normal registering or recording operations when the character of the record-cards changes which operation is not such that it warrants the complete stoppage of the machine, as is necessary when a total of amounts is to be taken or when counters have to be reset,

For such purposes,therefore, the employment of a machine in which the automaticcontrol mechanism stops the machine as an incident'to the performance of the operation referred to is attended by unnecessary waste of time, and it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a machine having automatic control mechanism which opcrates without stopping the machine.

According to this invention there is provided means for performingan operation in or of the machine other than or additional to the normal registering or recording functions thereof during the uninterrupted performance of such functions, in combination with an operative connection between sa1d means and the automatic-control mechanism in order that the said operation shall be performed only when the automatic-control mechanism detects a change in the character of the cards passing through the machine.

In the example mentioned above in which the machine makes a list of numbers, the operation performed when a change in the char- .acter of the record-cards occurs may consist is particularly applicable is that in which the record-cards are read while they are in motion, and preferably the aforesaid operation is performed in the interval between the reading of the last hole position on one card and the first hole position on the next card.

An electrically-controlled listing-machine which embodies the above and other features of the invention will now be described by Way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is aside elevation, with parts broken away, of the extra line-space mechanismaccording to this invention,

Figure 2 is a circuit-diagram of the machine,

Figure 3 is a timing-diagram wherein the various hole-positions and other points of i reference on the card are shown and the The shaft 5 is oscillated once per card cycle by means not shown and an arm 6 attached thereto raises a vertically guided frame to which the type-bars are resiliently connected. To select the proper type for printing, a detent (one for each type-bar) electromagnetically operated under the controlof a hole in the record-card is moved to engage a particular one of a row of ratchet teeth on the type-bar to arrest it in such a position that the required type-character is at the printing position. A full description of this mechanism is contained in the application Serial No. 639,153 hereinbefore mentioned.

The paper feed mechanism is of the usual kind comprising a rotatable platen 51, a ratchet-wheel 52 secured thereto, a sprin pressed pawl 53 pivoted to an arm 54 free y mounted on the spindle of the platen, a spring-pressed detent-lever 55 carrying a small roller at its end which engages the ratchet-teeth to prevent overthrow and undesired movements of the platen, and a mask 56 attached to a space-control lever 57.

The arm 54 is operated by a lever 58 the end of which is slotted to engage the pivotpin of the pawl, and which. is connected by means of a link 36 to a lever 34. This lever 34 is pivoted to a fixed bracket 35. Rocking of the lever 34 clockwise, thus pulling down the link, will rotate the platen to feed the paper.

Two depending cranked members 33, 37 are pivotally secured to the lever 34 at their left hand ends and attached to the lever at their right-hand ends by pivoted connections, the pivot-pins being held in slots as shown to enable adjustments to be made. The cranked member 37 has a downwardly extending lug 37 a for engagement by a pin 38a on an arm 38 secured to the shaft 5. During the anticlockwise movement of the shaft 5 (that is, during the time the type-bars are moving upwards) the lug will be pushed to the left, thereby rocking the lever 34 clockwise. This occurs once for each item printed, and brings about the normal line-spacing movement of the platen.

The cranked member 33 is connected at its lowermost point, by means of a link 31, to one arm 30a of a lever loosely mounted on the shaft 5. The other arm 30 of this lever lies in the path of a pin 7 secured to a disc 8. If therefore the disc 8 rotates clockwise, the pin 7 will encounter the arm 30, thereby rocking this arm counter-clockwise, and causing the lever 34, through the link 31, to be rocked clockwise to bring about a feed movement of the platen additional to and independent of that caused by the rocking of the shaft 5.

In the machine described in application Serial No. 639,153 the pin 329, analogous to the pin 7 described above, was carried by a wheel which was rotated only when the normal operations of the machine interrupted as a consequence of the action of the automatic control mechanism, or as a consequence of the passage of the last card of a batch through the machine. In fact this wheel was attached to a total-taking shaft (315) which was rotated by a separate motor to reset the counters to zero, and cause a total to be printed, and the extra line-space caused by the rotation of this shaft occurred only as an incident to the aforesaid interruption of the normal operations. In the present machine the normal listing operations are in no way interrupted and no part of the machine stops as a consequence of the functioning of the automatic control mechanism; it is merely desired to impart an extra feeding or line-spacing movement to the paper at the end of each group or category of cards.

This is effected by rotating the disc 8 when the last card of one group is succeeded by the first card of a new group.

As the normal linespacing'movement 0c curs during the ascent of the type-bars, the extra movement must occur during the only other part of the cycle availablenamely during the descent of the type-bars following the printing of the last item of a group.

It is preferred, though not necessary, to rotate the disc 8 at such a speed that it completes one revolution in one-half of a cardcycle. For this purpose the disc is mounted loosely upon a shaft 9 geared to the listin shaft 10 (294 in application Serial 0. 639,153) by one-to-twogearing 11, and a onerevolution clutch is provided whereby the disc may be clutched to the shaft 9 and declutched after a single revolution.

The one revolution clutch comprises a ratchet-wheel 12 fixed to theshaft 9, a springpressed pawl 13 pivoted to the disc 8, a stopmember 14 and a latch 15 which engages and holds the upper ends of the pawl and the stop-member, thereby holding the pawl out of engagement with the ratchet and also locking the disc against rotation.

The latch 15 is secured to the pivoted armature 16 of anelectromagnet 17, hereinafter referred'to asthe operating magnet, and it will readily be understood that momentary energization of this magnet will raise the latch, thereby releasing the pawl to enable it to engage a ratchet-tooth, and

at the same time disengaging the .sto -member 14 to permit the disc to turn. A ter one revolution, the latch will re-engage the pawl, thus de-clutching the disc, and will immediately re-engage the stop-member also, thereby stopping the disc in its original position.

The means of automatically energizing the electro-magnet 17 when a change of group occurs will now be described.

Referring to Figure 2, which is a circuit diagram of the machine, the circuits of the driving motor and of the control-devices therefor have been omitted as they are not concerned in the present invention.

The upper card-reading brushes 18 are shown connected in series (by means of plugconnections 19) with the lower brushes 20, and in each brush-circuit is placed the winding 21 of a relay the contacts of which are shown at 22. All the contacts 22 are connected in series in a control-circuit 22a which includes the winding 23 of a relay, hereinafter referred to as the intermediate relay. The usual short-circuiting plugs (not shown) are provided for bridging any pair of contacts 22 (or more than one pair) for which no plug-connection 19 has been made.

The contacts 24 of the intermediate relay 23 are so arranged as to be open when the winding is energized and to close when itis de energized. These contacts are placed in series with the operating magnet 17 previously mentioned.-

The relays 21 22 are of the kind (described in application Serial No. 639,153 and Patent No. 1,600,413) wherein the contacts I no tend to close by spring pressure and are held apart by a latch which is released by the energi'zation of the magnet winding. Any contacts which are thus closed remain closed until the end of the card-cycle, when they are mechanicallyopened and re-latched.

Thecontacts 22 are bridged by a pair of cam-operated contacts 25 which are normally closed and are opened momentarily (as shown in the timing diagram Figure 3) ust after the last hole-position of each card has passed the reading brushes.

The circuit 17a (hereinafter referred to as the operating circuit) containing the magnet 17 is provided with a pair of cam-operated contacts 26 which are normally open and are closed justbefore the contacts 25 are opened and open after the contacts 25 are closed as clearly shown in Figure 3.

It will now be clear that if, after the last hole-position on a card has passed the brushes, all the contacts 22 are closed, the opening of the contacts 25 will not de-energize the magnet 23, the contacts 24 thereof will remain open, and therefore the magnet 17 will not be energized when the contacts 26 close. a

If, however, one (or more) of the contacts 22 remains open, as will occur when the last card of one group is followed by the first card of a new group, the magnet 23 will be de-energized when the contacts 25 open, and the contacts 24 will close. But when this happens the contacts 26 are already closed, and consequently the operating magnet 17 will be energized, and the mechanism previously described with reference to Figure 1 will operateto bring about the additional line-spacing movement of the paper. I A holding-relay 27 is provided for bridging the contacts 24 so that the circuit through the magnet 17 7 remains closed during the whole time that the contacts 26 are closed.

The common lead 29 to the upper brushes 18 is provided with cam-operated contacts 40 which, as seen in Figure 3, are closed just before the first hole-position on the card (the 9 position) reaches the brushes and are opened after the last hole-position (the position) has left the brushes.

The lower brushes 20 are provided withseparate listing circuits 41 each comprising the winding of alistingmagnet 42 which controls the position at which the corresponding type-bar is arrested, as is fully explained in the patent specifications hereinbefore referred to.

In order to prevent sparking or arcing at the bushes, contacts 43 are provided in a common lead 44 to the brushes, these contacts being closed immediately beforea hole-posicurrent is never interrupted at the edge of a hole. These contacts 43 are operated in -turn by two five-pointed cams 45 which are geared to rotate once per card-cycle and the points of which operate alternately.

The usual card-lever contacts 46 areprovided in the lead 44, these contacts being operated by the lower card-lever 47 so as to be closed when cards are passing through the machine and to open after the last card has. passed. A further pair of contacts 48, also operated by the card-lever 47, is placed in the operating-circuit 17a, so that this circuit is broken automatically at the same time as the brush circuits.

Referring now to Figure 4' which illustrates a mechanism for severing thepaper 78 when a change occurs in the card group, a

in the path of the pin 7 An eccentric stopv 64 is provided for adjusting the initial position of the rack 63, and a spring 66 attached to the lever 61 holds the rack yieldingly against the stop 64. I

The paper 78 after leaving the plat'en'is fed between shearing blades. 76, 81. The

blade 76 is carried pivotally by one arm of a,

bell-crank-lever 74 pivoted at 73 and the other arm of this lever is in the path of an extension 63aof the rack 63. This arm is held by'a spring 75 against an eccentric stop.

which enables the position of the blade 7 6 to be adj usted. A spring 77 maintains this blade pressed against the fixed blade 81 and against a guide-block 82 immediately above it.

lVhcn the magnet 17 is energized as already described, the consequent rotation .of the disc 8 will cause the pin 7 to swing the lever 61 to the right, thus moving the rack (33 to the right, thereby rotating the platen 51 and feeding the paper forward an amount sufficient to bring the last-printed item past the blades 76, 81. Immediately after the last tooth of the rack has left the pinion the extension 623 will meet the vertical arm of the lever 74, thereby moving the blade 7 6 downwards and severing the paper. When the paper has beensevered, the pin 7 will slip past the shoulder 62, the lever 61 will be returned to its normal position carrying with it the rack 63 which in its return movement will rc-engage the pinion (59 and turn it back to its original position without, however, turning the platen; the pawl merely riding over the teeth of the ratchet-wheel 72. The severed portion of the record-sheet falls into a tray 80.

The right-hand guide-pin 67 is mounted adjustably in a slot 68 provided in a fixed part of the machine. When it is not desired to sever the record-sheet this pin 67 is moved downwards in the slot 68 sufficiently far to ensure that the teeth of the rack 63 clear the teeth of the pinion 69 and also to ensure that the extension 63 will miss the lever-arm 74, as shown at 63*.

It will be understood that although Figure 4 illustrates a mechanism which also includes the extra-line-space mechanism shown in Figure 1, the devices for severing the record-sheet may if desired be employed by themselves.

In order to print an asterisk upon the record-sheet when the automatic control mechanism functions, an additional controlrelay 83 is placed in the operating circuit. The contacts 84 of this relay are placed in a circuit 88 which contains an electromagnet 87 for controlling the operation of an asterisk type-bar in the well-known manner. The contacts 84 are shunted through a holding relay 85 and the circuit 88 is provided with a pair of cam-operated contacts 86 which are timed (see Figure 3) to close just after the last hole-position on a card has passed the brushes (and immediately before the closing of the contacts 25) and to open at the No. 7 position of the next card.

The purpose of the holding relay 85 and cam-contacts 86 is to ensure that the asterisk is printed with the first item of each new group. As already described, the detection of a change of group is not made effective until the contacts 25 open. At this time the items from the last card of the first group have been printed and the type-bars are descending. After the relay-magnet 83 is energized the circuit 88 will remain closed, and the asterisk magnet 87 energized, until the typebars have begun to rise for the printing of the items from the first card of the new group; the asterisk type is placed on the type-bar in the 9 or first position, and this type-bar will therefore be arrested before the contacts 86 open, and an asterisk will therefore be printed on the same line as the item from the first card of the new group.

vA switch 89 is provided for short-circuiting the relay magnet 83 when it is not desired to print an asterisk, and a switch 90 and resistance 91 are provided for shortcircuiting the magnet 17 when it is not desired to cause an extra line-spacing movement of the paper.

The arrangement illustrated for causing an asterisk to be printed may be employed apart from the extra line-spacing mechanism previously described.

The automatic-control mechanism may be of a kind other than that which comprises two card-reading devices spaced apart along the track of the cards, for example it may be of the kind described in Patent No. 1,486,149.

I claim 1. In a record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon successive groups of records which are passed through the machine in uninterrupted succession, means for functioning independently of the operation upon the records but concurrently with the passage of the record groups through the machine and means for calling said last named means into operation upon a change in record group.

2. In a record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon successive groups of records which are passed through the machine in uninterrupted succession, means for functioning independently of the operation upon the records but concurrently with the passage of the record groups through the machine and record controlled means for calling said independently functioning means into operation in response to a change in record group.

3. In a printing record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine and means controlled thereby for printing on a record sheet data from the controlling records, means for automatically spacing the record sheet on each printing operation and record controlled means for automatically additionally spacing the record sheet in response to a change in controlling record group.

4. In a printing record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine and means controlled thereby for printing on a continuous record sheet data from the controlling records and record controlled means for severing the record on a change in record group to obtain the printed items of each group on a separate record slip.

5. In a printing record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine and means controlled thereby for printing on a continuous record sheet data from the controlling records,

means for automatically spacing the record sheet a predetermined distance on each printing operation and record controlled means for automatically spacing the record sheet a distance greater than normal and there after severing it on a change in controlling record group.

6. In a printing record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine and means controlled thereby for printing on a. record sheet data from the controlling records, means for automatically spacing the record sheet on each printing operation, means for automatically additionally spacing the record sheet in response to a change in controlling record group and record controlled means for effecting operation of the last named means between the printing operation on the last card of a group and the printing operation on the first card of the succeeding group.

7. In a printing record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted through-the machine and means controlled thereby for printing on a record sheet data from the controlling records, means for automatically spacing the record sheet a normal predetermined distance on each printing operation, means for automatically addition-' ally spacing the record sheet a distance greater than normal and thereafter severing it in response to a change in controlling record group and record controlled means for effecting operation of said last named means between the printing operation on the last card of a group and the printing operation on the first card of a succeeding group.

8. In a record controlled statistical machine means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine, means for effecting a subsidiary resultant operation in connection with the record operation and record controlled means for calling said last named means into 0 eration, said record controlled means inclu ing a control circuit adapted to be interrupted to etl'ect the subsidiary operation on failure of successive records to agree in group designations.

9. In a record controlled statistical machine, means for operating upon individual records of successive groups which are passed in uninterrupted succession through the machine, means for effecting a subsidiary resultant operation in connection with the record operation and record controlled means for calling said last named means into operation, said record controlled means including a control circuit adapted to be interrupted to effect the subsidiary operation on failure of successive records to agree in group designations and means for delaying the subsidiary operation until the completion of the record operation on the last record of a group.

10. In a record controlled statistical machine, means for successively and continuously feeding perforated records containing group designations through the machine, means for printing data designations corresponding to perforations on said records on a record sheet, a control circuit including circuit closing means for interrupting the same on failure of successive records to agree in group designating perforations, means for spacing and severing said record sheet and means controlled by said control circuit on interruption thereof to call said spacing and severing means into operation.

In testimony whereof I afiix my si ature.

CHARLES CAMPB LL.

succession I 

